Women in agriculture - implementing equality commitments: research report

Appendix 3: Interview guides

Management interview guide

Background

Can you tell me about your role and responsibilities in this company? What attracted you to working in the [insert industry]?

Case for change

Can you give me a sense of the gender balance within your organisation? Has this changed over time? Women concentrated in particular occupations? Growth in the number of women in male dominated occupations? Leadership positions?

What are the key barriers that women face in terms of entering and remaining in this industry (or in particular occupations in this industry)? e.g. sexism, social isolation, long-working hours/lack of flexible working option, lack of suitable facilities on sites, perceptions around physical attributes such as strength, general conduct and behaviour.

What are the particular challenges you face as a business in attracting and retaining women into more traditional male occupations? (Prompt for perceptions of the industry, nature of work, working conditions)

What prompted you to take action in this area? (Prompt for moral, legal, business case) E.g. External pressure/recruitment challenges/skills shortages/innovation/doing the ‘right thing’?

When did you begin to focus on this agenda? Where are you on your journey in addressing gender equality? Prompt for starting out (talking about the business case), further along (collecting employee feedback) well developed (responding to employee feedback with an Action Plan, mainstreaming into all activities)

What assessments do you make when designing gender equality interventions? Use of data (metrics and analytics) to identify issues?

At what level is change being driven – strategically? Operationally?

Is data shared with department/division managers?

Details of initiatives/actions to advance gender equality

What action (if any) is your organisation taking aimed at enhancing gender equality/increasing the number of women in the company?

• Formal HRM practices (e.g. standardised interview process, formal job ladders, transparency in promotion decisions etc.)
• Policies (e.g. maternity, paternity, menopause)
• Flexible working options (e.g. flexi-time, part-time, working time autonomy, the four-day working week, home-working) and leave options
• Women’s groups/networks (company or industry level), mentoring opportunities
• Quotas
• Diversity/unconscious bias training
• Work environment/work conditions – physical spaces, safety, PPE, uniform, facilities
• Work behaviour – general behaviour, equality issues in dignity and respect (verbal abuse, humiliating treatment, bullying/harassment)
• Changes to the nature of work e.g. technological advancements, robotics
• Engagement programmes with schools, FE and HE. e.g. career fairs and the local community

Can you give us a sense of the timeline of action – when did you put things in place?

When did you expect to see results?

How did you determine the approach that you took? E.g. were staff consulted/were area experts consulted/did you explore the situation in your organisation and/or sector and tailor your approach? (were the barriers mentioned identified/explored and used as a basis for the action taken by the organisation?)

How do gender equality actions fit within the broader strategy of the organisation?

Are initiatives part of an overall strategy or are they stand alone?

Who is responsible for the action/initiatives? How senior are they in the organisation? Is it part of their role or is it a ‘voluntary’ addition? Are they women or men or a team of both?

Implementation

What was your experience of setting up their initiative(s?) did you face any challenges? E.g. resistance from staff at any level/participation challenges?

Are your initiatives targeted at women specifically or are they offered to full employee base?

What are people’s perceptions of how the initiatives were received? (there is evidence that initiatives often result in stigma/negative perceptions – e.g. stigma around making use of flexible working) – if you’ve encountered any issues such as these, have they taken any action to address this? Has it worked?

Are managers provided with any training? (e.g. if there is a flexible working policy, are managers trained in how to implement and use this effectively? Or with hiring policies, is training in equal opportunity interviewing provided?)

Do you communicate your initiatives? E.g. through the website/career sections/other externally focused comms?

Do you feel there has been a strong and consistent level of buy-in across managers and staff within the organisation? Any groups difficult to persuade? Any groups/members of staff that played a key role in driving this agenda forward? Are there staff networks involved in driving/supporting this work? Are there any accountability measures built into these initiatives?

Do you have sufficient resources to support your initiatives?

Monitoring, evaluation and impact of initiatives

Do you measure factors related to gender equality? If so, how long have you done this? – what happens to this data?

Are you monitoring the impact/effectiveness of your initiatives? Do you seek feedback from participants (or staff more generally if we’re talking about policies such as parental leave/flexi-work?) Are you tracking any impact on numbers such as applications from women/women being hired/women being promoted?

If you are monitoring/assessing action/initiatives – are they ‘working’? What impact are they having? Any evidence of improvements?

If you are getting feedback from employees, what does this look like? Do they have ways of acting upon it?

How effective have these initiatives been? What has worked, or not, and why?

Do you think there were any particular factors that enabled the equality initiatives to become successful? E.g. good data, leadership support, funding, communication.

What would make them more effective?

Future Plans

What does the company plan to do going forward? Do you have plans in place to introduce any further initiatives/programmes/make any further commitments?

What advice would you give to other organisations in male dominated sectors embarking upon this journey?

Industry wide focus

Do you think the size of your company impacts on your approach and what you feel able to implement? – e.g. for SMEs, does the size of your company impact positively and/or negatively upon your ability to take action in this area?

Is your action in line with that of other organisations in your sector?

Are you part of any sector groups that promote action in terms of enhancing gender equality?

Are there any ramifications for not taking action in this area within your sector/industry? (for example, if we compare this issue to safety – within many industries there are serious ramifications if safety isn’t taken seriously – but issues such as gender diversity often fall much lower on the priority list.)

What are the challenges you face to improve the gender balance within your business? [prompt for resources available, line manager buy-in]

Employee interview guide

Background: attraction to the industry, career aspirations & personal experience

Tell us about your current role?

What first attracted you to working in the [insert industry] or [insert occupation]? How did you find out about the job and what qualifications did you require?

What are your future career aspirations? Do you see yourself staying in this job or moving on? Why/why not?

Have you encountered any obstacles in your career because you are a woman?

Have you encountered any obstacles you do not think a male in the same occupation as you would encounter?

Views on the business’ approach to advancing gender equality

We want to understand what kind of efforts have been made within your company to advance gender equality.Prompt for awareness, endorsement, use and effectiveness for the following:

• Formal HRM practices (e.g. standardised interview process, formal job ladders, transparency in promotion decisions etc.)
• Policies (e.g. maternity, paternity, menopause)
• Flexible working options (e.g. flexi-time, part-time, working time autonomy, the four-day working week, home-working) and leave options
• Women’s groups/networks (company or industry level), mentoring opportunities
• Quotas
• Diversity/unconscious bias training
• Work environment/work conditions – physical spaces, safety, PPE, uniform, facilities
• Work behaviour – general behaviour, equality issues in dignity and respect (verbal abuse, humiliating treatment, bullying/harassment)
• Changes to the nature of work e.g. technological advancements, robotics
• Engagement programmes with schools, FE and HE. e.g. career fairs and the local community

What are your thoughts on your company’s approach to gender equality? Could more be done? What are the challenges in being able to do more? e.g. resource constraints, no individual responsible for driving the agenda.

Are there mechanisms in place for you to feedback and share your views on policies and processes relating to improving the gender balance?

Have you seen positive outcomes in terms of more women working in the business, particularly in male-dominated occupations? Promotions? Women in leadership roles? Retention?

Challenges in advancing gender equality within your industry/business

What are the key barriers that women face in terms of entering and remaining in [insert industry/business]? e.g. sexism, social isolation, long-working hours/lack of flexible working option, lack of suitable facilities on sites, perceptions around physical attributes such as strength.

Is [insert industry/business] a welcoming environment for women? Why/why not?

Why do you think women remain underrepresented in [insert industry/business]?

Would you recommend that young women seek out careers in [insert industry]?

What could the industry and wider society be doing to encourage more women to work in [insert industry]?

How does a diverse workforce benefit [insert industry] as a whole?